Friday Favorite Finds!

Lots of people have asked me where I’ve found things over the past few months that I plan to use for the wedding or post wedding (such as my new monogrammed necklace!). Mostly, I can attribute my finds to searches on Etsy that started out of boredom and happened into wonderfulness. Pinterest has also had some good finds, but they typically lead me back to Etsy.

First of all, I found this amazing window-pane chalkboard a while back. We plan to use it at the bar to list out drinks/mixers for the wedding. It came from Splash of Lime, a blog created by a mother/daughter team who finds items that we all want and fixes them up and re-sells them at half the cost of which you could find elsewhere. (Special thanks to my most-specialist MOH who picked it up for me!).   I also snatched up the sign in front of it from GroopDealz which offers items at low-cost for a short period of time (hence the ”snatching”).  LW is not a huge fan of the sign, so we’ll see if it actually gets used but either way, I consider it a good find!

My next most favorite find, were hangers for my super-sweet bridesmaids. An early thank you for all the time and work they have already put in. I seriously have the most thoughtful group of girls that will be standing by my side very soon! They came from DeLovely Details (an Etsy seller) and were a hit!

One of my next favorite finds, this this simple needlepoint framed cross-stitch. It’s message makes me smile. I do think that I’ll end up changing out the frame or at least painting it. It was also an Etsy find, and although it was one of a kind, the shop has some other items that are worth taking a peek at.

Last week, I found a tree-stump cake holder which will proudly display our mini Bride & Groom cake (don’t worry, we’ll have delicious desserts for the guests, as well). I was shocked to find it at Michael’s and for only $14.99 when somewhere else was trying to charge almost 3 times that to RENT one. If you have the time, and ability to be crafty, it can certainly save you a pretty penny in wedding planning. I have a fear that I’m just going to end up with really full craft drawers, and have all of these pretty ideas for years to come. (Any volunteers to come do crafts?!).

My last, and most favorite find, is my new monogrammed necklace with my brand-spankin’ new initials as of 8-17-13. I am dying to wear this beauty. I had looked at more costly versions (Moon & Lola) in the past but never splurged. Thank goodness! I found this gem on Etsy for a steal!

Happy Friday – and happy LONG weekend!

3 months and counting!

It’s hard to believe that we only have 3 itsy bitsy months left until our big day! For the most part, we are prepared, we have a few last minute things to do and a few that we will still likely be scrambling for in the coming weeks/months, but we’re feeling okay about it. This is our only weekend home this month, so we have big plans of finding wedding bands, figuring out vows, and getting the suits ordered for our handsome groomsmen.

I had to share a few pictures from our DC wedding weekend with all of LW’s college friends. Everything about their day was completely perfect – from the weather to the venue to the outstanding pies and the brides custom dress. I loved every last detail!
It was such a fun wedding, too! The dancing that ensued was movie worthy at times. And of course, we were mentally note-taking for our own wedding – since the venues are somewhat similar and both ceremonies were/are planned for outside.
I do have to say that Jenny & Kevin have impeccable taste in music. We were thoroughly impressed by the choices for the important songs, but also the dance music as well. It literally was the perfect day for a wedding, and they had such a perfect wedding!

Next up, Valerie and David get hitched 2 weeks before us. I know it will be a fun wedding and I can’t wait to celebrate with them in South Carolina!

And also, a big shout out to Amy & Clay today, one year from today they will be walking down the sandy aisle in Wrightsville Beach to say “I do.” I’m giddy just thinking about it!

100 days til “I do”

Today marks 100 days until the BIG day. I’m sure there are a million things I should be thinking about, but I’m focusing on getting fit. Not that I’m not in decent shape, I’m “petite” by all standards and my co-workers swear I have the metabolism of a child, but I want to have that toned body that all brides want.

Sometime around Christmas, I signed up for FlyWheel, which I fell in love with from day one. I also purchased a FlyBarre class, to give it a shot. I started doing yoga, semi-regularly, and lastly, I signed up for 2 “long” races – a half marathon and a 10-miler. I thought a combination of these things would help me achieve the “wedding body” that a bride wants: toned arms, flat stomach and of course, a healthy look.

Sadly, I was so busy with grad school classes that I hardly trained for either of my “long” races, and although I completed them, that’s pretty much all I got out of signing up for the race. I have only been to one FlyWheel class (again, the time thing!), and I’ve yet to try FlyBarre. I also haven’t had time for yoga, on top of searching for a new studio due to some changes at the one I had been attending.

Now that I have graduated, and the countdown is on, I am kicking it into high gear with the working out. I’m running daily and promising myself to do fitness classes at least 3 times a week, and yoga too. On days I can’t get outside (or to the gym due to work travel), I’ve been doing Insanity or other work out DVDs. So I’m hoping to achieve my goals well in advance of the wedding, but also considering a personal trainer at the 2 month mark if I’m not seeing the results I want.

But I’m determined, and it’s not like I haven’t been a workout fool in the past. So here we go, start the countdown and start the calorie burning!

Travel totes!

I am DYING over these Kate Spade totes! How perfect would these be for the honeymoon? Or just one? I’m eyeing the “Rest & Relaxation” one.

I might claim these as the PERFECT bridal shower gift! What do you think? Which is your favorite?

Tuesday Giveaway!

Well, after months of searching, and a night full of belly-laughs, we have chosen our wedding invitations and I think we nailed the wording down as well:

“You are cordially invited to celebrate with Landon,  Ashleigh and their families on this joyous day where they will exchange marriage vows at their wedding ceremony. We would be honored if you would join us for our union.”

Maybe you can see where the belly laughs were coming from? We did have a jolly time last night going through the 30 or so sample invitations that we had collected, and narrowing it down to six before making our decision (Now I just have to call and see if they can do a sample in the colors we want because we can’t seem to picture it and be okay with purchasing it based on the picture in our heads!).

Anyway, this left us with a pile of sample invitations that we aren’t going to be using – so here comes the giveaway! I know I have lots of friends that are brides-to-be, and we have also just entered wedding season so this should be fun!

First bride-to-be to comment with their email address saying that they want the invitations, will get them. Now, if you don’t want them ALL, you can also say that you want any of these categories and I’ll happily just send you those: Modern, Traditional, Artistic, Rustic.

Ready, set, comment!

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya…

A while back I mentioned our honeymoon dilemma of WHERE to go!? With so many options and a trip we’ll only take once in our lives, we wanted it to be absolutely perfect. We had considered the entire globe at first and narrowed it down to 5 specific areas – but they were still VERY spread out.

Tahiti was GORGEOUS and a friend had recommended it, as well as another friend who just traveled there and had incredible pictures – but a 20-hour flight? And jet lag on my honeymoon? Plus the price tag on each flight matched the entirety of the stay. It just didn’t quite make sense to us.

Hawaii is also amazing, and we figured out which islands we wanted to go to if that’s where we chose. But again, the flights and the jet-lag outweighed the idea of hiking, beaches and potential great-white shark swimming. Oh wait, nothing outweighs the idea of swimming with great-whites for me, but I figure we have the next 60-70 years of our lives to do that so I’ll just keep it on my bucket list.

We had also discussed the Greek Isles, Seychelles, Curacao and like I said before, a multitude of other places. We decided that the Caribbean made the most sense flight wise, since we could get direct flights that were short, to most places. I spent an afternoon making a spreadsheet that included resort names, location, activities available, flight times/costs, cost of resort for 8 days/7 nights and any other “helpful” information, and then I passed this info over to my beau for his fabulous decision-making skills.

We’ve never had a bad trip anywhere, so I totally trust his ability to choose the right place. I know some people keep the honeymoon a secret but not us! My darling groom emailed me just to say that there were no flights departing on the 8th day like I had wanted, so he went ahead and booked it for 11 days and 10 nights! Oh, and we are staying in the most adorable hotel that Aruba has to offer!
This bride-to-be is so excited to be relaxing on white-sand beaches with the man of my dreams, and with an extra-ring on my left hand!

Happy May, and happy just-over-three-months-until-”I do!”

Paper Goods

I have a slight obsession with stationary, and greeting cards, and apparently also with wedding invitation samples. Maybe not so much an obsession with the samples, but with finding THE RIGHT ONE. It took us a little bit of time to decide on the save-the-dates, but not nearly as long as it is for the invitations. And here we are, coming down to the wire and we’re still going in circles about which ones we like best.

Here is our kitchen table with MOST of the samples that I’ve ordered, from various places, such as: Wedding Paper Divas, The Green Kangaroo, and Exclusively Weddings - we have about 25 all together. The thing is, I can’t pick JUST ONE. There are certain things I like about some of them, and other things I like about others, but they aren’t all on the same invitation. Someone told me a while back about Salutations in Ballantyne, and that we could basically design our own there, but between work, grad school, and regular ol’ life, we haven’t had the time.

There are about a million sites that you can order invitations from, and I really appreciate the ones that offer samples (and free samples are even better!). It’s so hard to pick THE PERFECT ONE that will forever be “our wedding invitation.” Do we want artwork? Do we want our names in big calligraphy letters? Do we want white paper or colored? Ugh! Toooo many options – and still trying to not break the bank with the invitations, envelopes, RSVP cards.

I know I want classy, and simple, and definitely in our wedding colors. My groom is a little more artistic than I am and prefers some sort of design, and apparently does not like “big names” on the invitation. So, we’re still at square one with this decision, and have about 8 weeks before we need to be mailing these bad boys out. I see a quick game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo in our near future!

What are your best invitation recommendations? Favorite vendors or websites? I would LOVE to hear about them!

Party for the Lovebirds

This past weekend, my soon-to-be in-laws hosted a party for us with many of my fiance’s old family friends and many new friends as well. It was so nice to meet all the people that I’ve heard him talk about growing up with – and put faces with names.
It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We felt so blessed being surrounded by all of these nice folks who were so happy to celebrate US. My darling mother-in-law to-be and sister-in-law to-be cooked all of the delicious goodies that were served (and immediately scarfed up!).
It’s also been awesome being able to have our families together throughout our engagement. My mom drove down from VA to hang out for the afternoon and celebrate with us. We’re lucky to both have families that love us so much! And of course, I’m thankful for my MOH who has made an attempt to be at all of our events and this one happened to be on her home turf so she didn’t have far to travel.
The kids were a favorite part of the day for me, I loved playing with all of Landon’s cousin’s children (don’t read too much into this, we’re waiting for a WHILE).

So many things are happening this weekend, my groom is headed off on his bachelor party in the mountains, I have a hair trial and dress fitting which my mom is coming down for, my bridesmaids have been working diligently all week on booking the perfect bachelorette party spot for me. This is such an exciting time, and only further reminds us of how lucky and how loved we are. We are so thankful for everyone that has been a part of our engagement and our amazing families… and of course, I’m thankful for my darling groom.

Happy almost weekend!

Happy Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day, I’d like to share with you some eco-friendly wedding items that I’ve stumbled across.

First of all, our napkins, which we ordered from The Knot’s wedding shop:

While slightly more expensive than the non-eco friendly ones, we figured, why not help Earth out so we can live on it together for a little longer? They are currently on sale for $36.99 for 100 napkins, and you can customize them to say anything you want!

Secondly, we ordered biodegradeable straws for the wedding from Shop Sweet LuLu (thanks again, Michelle!) and we’re totally smitten with the designs. There are so many to choose from!

Now, we are still on the hunt for the P-E-R-F-E-C-T  invitations for our big day, but I have found several sites that offer eco-friendly invitations (and also recommend having RSVPs online instead of through the mail!).

1. Great Green Wedding
2. Earthly Affair
3. Minted

Hopefully this decision will come this week, since we have less than 120 days until our wedding!

Go recycle something and turn off the lights when you leave the room, Happy Earth Day!

Busy Bride-to-be

I have been a bad blogger this week due to an illness that has had me on the couch for 5 days straight now (and to 2 doctors appointments!). I was also finishing up my last grad school presentations and papers this week, and simultaneously knocking out some wedding planning. Quick list of things accomplished this week:

• Shuttle for guests to and from hotel to venue
• Room for getting ready + wedding night hotel room booked
• Hair trial and dress fitting scheduled for April 27th
• Ordered MORE sample invitations (future hubs is not a fan of any of them!) <– post coming soon about this!
• Found lots of options for Bridesmaid shoes – no winner though!
• Best woMan got her shoes for the wedding (and loves them!)
• I got my shoes for the wedding in the right size!
• Got our invoice for tables/chairs/linens for the wedding & reception
• Booked the coordinator
• Decided on rehearsal dinner place and menu!
• Booked rehearsal for wedding

I might be sick but we were still productive. Of course, I had help in all of these things – BMs, MIL-to-be, hubs to be, SIL-to-be…

Speaking of all these people “to-be” in my life, my sweet soon-to-be in-laws have planned a party for us this weekend in Chapel Hill. So looking forward to it (and the raspberry champagne punch!).

Happy weekend!